Irvine

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Irvine lies on the River Irvine as it makes its last meander before
joining with the River Garnock to flow into the sea. There's been an
established settlement here at least as far back as 1140 when it was given
Burgh status by Hugh de Morville, Great Constable of Scotland under
King David I.

High Street

Railway Station

Irvine Centre

Irvine Parish Church

Its long history sits oddly with Irvine's designation as a New Town
and its acquisition of a Development Corporation in 1966. This had much to do
with the decline in the traditional industries on which the town's wealth had
been built.

Coal mining had been especially important to Irvine, both in terms
of the employment directly provided in the pits, and the historical reliance of
Irvine Harbour on coal exports.

Irvine Town House

Kings Arms Hotel

By the early 1980s Irvine's economy was in a parlous state with
unemployment at 22% following the demise of the coal industry and a series of
other industrial closures. But the tide was starting to turn.

Volvo invested heavily through the 1980s in its truck and bus plant
in the town (though this later closed in 1999), while in 1989 the UK's largest
paper mill was opened just south of Irvine by Finnish company Kymmene.

Irvine Harbourside's
regeneration has been spectacular, with Scotland's largest leisure centre and
major developments by the Scottish
Maritime Museum: though the closure of the new Big Idea Millennium
Project also on the Harbourside was a blow.

To the west of the Rivergate Centre is Irvine's Railway Station,
effectively forming the link between the town centre to its east and
Irvine Harbourside to its west, and
well placed to serve both.

Irvine today is a bustling town. Its
Harbourside area takes most of the
plaudits, but the town itself also has an attractive feel.

The Rivergate Centre makes more of a contribution to the appearance
of the town that you'd normally expect of a modern shopping centre. The slight
shame is that the wonderful Trinity Church overlooking the square in front of
the centre is derelict, a brief existence as a community centre having come to
an end.

Dominating the east side of Irvine is the Town House, built in
1859, complete with its tall octagonal lantern. A little to the south is the
third feature on the distant skyline of Irvine (setting aside the more recently
added line of tower blocks). This is the spire of Irvine Parish Church, built
in 1774.

Linking the Parish Church to the main shopping area is Hill Street,
a wonderfully preserved evocation of an earlier age, where even the outside
lights have an original appearance.